When the Jets hosted the Cowboys in Week 1, it was the latest opportunity for twin brothers Rex and Rob Ryan to engage in a little sibling rivalry, football style. Rex, in his third season as New York's head coach and Rob, in Year 1 as the Dallas defensive coordinator, matched wits with the Jets eking out a last-minute victory (thanks, in part, toTony Romo).

Rob was asked Friday if he'd heard from his brother since the win. Turns out, he has.

"Yeah, he left some really unflattering messages, but it's to be expected,'' Rob said, according to the Dallas Morning News' David Moore. "It's coming back to him one of these days. There is no compassion there at all. No.''

When asked if he could give a PG version of Rex's message Rob offered this: "There was no PG thing about them. I think it was R or worse.''

Sounds about right.

Immediately after the game, Rob could be seen on the field yelling and screaming at no one in particular. It wasn't clear where -- or at whom -- he was directing his anger, but our friends at the Jets Blog speculate it could've been Antonio Cromartie, or perhaps Plaxico Burress, who injured cornerback Mike Jenkins on a peel-back block.

"It's an unfortunate part of this business. The last few years (I've) lost a lot of games and I'm really sick of it. Each loss seems to be harder. I'm here to win and I know we're going to win. I know we're good enough to win. We've just got to step it up and keep them out of the end zone.''

While watching the first part of the NFL Network’s fascinating documentary of Bill Belichick that was filmed during the 2009 season, I decided to jot down my favorite Belichick moments. Though you wouldn’t know it by his actions and his comments during the football season, if you see him in informal settings, Belichick actually has a personality.

It’s hard to imagine if you just watch him during his cold, emotionless in-season press conferences. But get him out of the media room, and he becomes a funny, interesting individual.

That said, here are the top-five quotes from Belichick during the documentary that showed Belichick in a light in which he rarely is seen -- as an actual human being who has emotions and a pretty good sense of when to unfurl some nasty trash talking.

-While talking to Jon Bon Jovi (!) during training camp, Bon Jovi basically asks, So, what’s the deal with that Rex Ryan?” Said Belichick in a way that almost could be construed as not hating Ryan: “I think he’ll get his guys to play. I think they’ll play hard for him.”

This is funny in retrospect, because this was before Ryan said he wouldn’t kiss Belichick’s rings and before Ryan beat Belichick in the playoffs last year. But Belichick was right. Ryan’s team does play hard for him.

-Here’s Belichick, while meeting in the pregame with the refs before Tom Brady takes his first preseason snaps after his knee surgery in 2008.

Says one official: “We’ll keep everybody safe.” Responded Belichick: “Take good care of (Brady). Hopefully we can block them.” Then, making an aside comment to Brady, “The only thing I can cheer for in Philadelphia is the national anthem.”

-During a preseason game, Julian Edelman looked fantastic in returning a punt for a touchdown. Immediately, Belichick sought out Wes Welker -- who was injured and not playing not that day -- and decided to poke some fun at him.

“You ever hear of Wally Pipp?”

Said Welker: “No.”

Belichick: “He played before Lou Gehrig. He missed one day, and Gehrig played the next 23,000 games (Ed. Note: this was either a mistake or a slight exaggeration). That might be the punt return story.”

Welker: “No doubt, he can have it.”

Belichick: “There you go. Way to compete.”

-When a reporter, playing off the Ryan “kiss your ring” comment, asked Belichick during a media teleconference if anybody had ever actually kissed his Super Bowl rings.

Belichick laughed but played it like normal: in other words not willing to give the scribes a morsel of interesting information.

“Um,” he said, “I don’t think so.”

“Where are your rings?”

“Uh, they’re in a box somewhere.”

-And my favorite moment of the documentary? It came when Ravens receiver Derrick Mason talked trash to Belichick in the middle of a game the Patriots would win.

“F--- you Mason,” Belichick said. “Just shut the f--- up. Can you look at the scoreboard?”

See the video below for a good laugh.

-And an honorable mention:

When he returns to the Meadowlands to play the Jets, he gets a little emotional as he reminisces about coaching in the Giants organization for a decade. When in the defensive meeting room, Belichick, with his voice catching, just can't get over how small the meeting room is compared to his memory of it. He even gets excited about seeing the old racquetball court. He was asked who won the racquetball games between him and Bill Parcells. “I probably beat him more than he beat me. As soon as it was over, he’d light into about four cigarettes.”

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The Ryan Brothers are about more than oversized mouths and midsections. They’re two of the craftiest defensive scientists in today’s NFL.

Rob, in his first season as Dallas’ defensive coordinator, is hoping to build the same type of confounding defense that his brother has constructed in New York.

That’s a tall order.

The Jets have had two full years of experience in The Ryan System; the Cowboys, thanks to the lockout, have not quite had two months. The Jets also have the luxury of designing coverages around Darrelle Revis, the best shutdown corner since Deion Sanders.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, are just hoping that Terence Newman, who showed signs of decline last season, can recover from a groin injury in time to play. Whether he does or not, the Cowboy corners figure to need safety help Sunday night.

The Cowboys defense will improve under Rob Ryan, but it’s a question of when. The Jets defense, we already know, is ready to go. For this reason, we’ll focus our five key points on Cowboys O vs. Jets D – a matchup that, as you’ll see, drastically favors Gang Green.

1. Selling Out What Rex Ryan does as well as any coach in football is attack tendencies. In other words, for simplicity sake, say that on second-and-10, data shows that the opposing offense uses play action 75 percent of the time. The Jets, on second-and-10, will employ a defensive tactic that goes all-out towards stopping play action.

This might seem like an obvious move. But a majority of NFL coaches are hindered by fear about that 25 percent chance of getting burned by a non-play action call. Not Ryan. He always looks to feast on an offense’s predictability. That’s one reason his players love him. Worth noting is that last season, the Cowboys often clang to basic personnel formations and had a tendency to be predictable.

2. The Disguise While it’s true the Jets are one of football’s blitz-happiest teams (especially on third down), it’s a myth that their playbook is thick with myriad blitz designs. In actuality, the Jets use a relatively modest collection of blitz packages. The difference is that they execute these blitzes with a wide variety of personnel. Insiders call this "cross training", when a team has multiple players from multiple positions performing the same techniques. The Jets have nearly mastered it. This versatility is why defenders can roam around before the snap and disguise their looks.

3. The Execution A lot of Ryan’s pass-rush designs look like blitzes but actually involve only four pass-rushers. Often, the pass-rushers are overloaded to one side. For example, the Jets might place seven defenders on the line of scrimmage (say four to left and three to right).

But when the ball is snapped, three of the four defenders on the left side drop into coverage, while all three defenders on the right side rush. This creates confusion for offenses in pass protection, which results in pass-rushers getting a clear path to the quarterback or being blocked by an overwhelmed running back.

The Jets make great use of a variety of zone exchanges. As our illustration shows, much of the work is done simply with the presnap alignment.

In this alignment, even if three of the four defenders on the left side of the line retreat back into coverage, they still create a pass-rushing advantage for the defense. The very nature of the pre-snap configuration forces the offense to waste blockers on the left side and also creates one-on-one matchups on the right.

Those one-on-one matchups dictate that the running back pick up the outside linebacker, which is a mismatch favoring the defense. On a related note, the running back also has reason to first look left (1. above) immediately after the snap, which makes him a half-beat slower in identifying his actual assignment on the right (2. above).

4. Cowboys Achilles Heal Pass protection recognition figures to be a bugaboo for the Cowboys – at least early in the season. Two of Dallas’ starting linemen are rookies: first round right tackle Tyron Smith, who, at 20, is the youngest player in the league, and seventh-round left guard Bill Nagy.

What’s more, new center Phil Costa might not be overweight and overpaid like predecessor Andre Gurode, but he’s also not battle-tested. The undrafted second-year pro has played in four games, with just one start that came at left guard. Front line questions are ominous considering Tony Romo has always had some trouble diagnosing blitzes.

The only saving grace in Week 1 is that with Rob Ryan running the Cowboys D, this callow offensive line has had a chance to practice against some of Rex Ryan’s defensive concepts. But we’re still talking about an untested group coming off a shortened offseason and facing one of the most confounding defenses in all of football.

This will be like watching football’s version of a great impromptu dance-off or pickup street ball game. Both players are unrefined but dripping with natural talent and confidence. Bryant’s inexperience figures to limit his route tree; Cromartie’s refusal to use his hands in press coverage drives Jets coaches crazy. But both players have natural game-changing abilities.

"This is not really my style," Rodgers said. "I like my anonymity. I like my privacy. I like to be the quarterback during the week and during the offseason be able to do what I want to do and not be in the public eye."

That's totally fair for Rodgers to say (re: style; embarrassing might be a different story) and it's his prerogative on how he wants to dress when being photographed and whether he wants to pose for magazine shoots.

I wouldn't do what Sanchez did either, but the gig in New York and the gig in Green Bay are two completely different ballgames. If you're the quarterback in the Big Apple and you try to avoid the press, you'll get more press. If you're the quarterback in Green Bay you can do whatever you want as long as you have success on the field.

In short, it's just a different world, and it's not how Rodgers rolls.

"When you hang out with 'Hollywood' people, those people are able to stay in that moment and stay in their Hollywood fame, and it's absolutely ridiculous," Rodgers said. "They never come out of that mode -- that 'We're famous' mode. You can't have a normal conversation."

Yes, but in place of that "normal conversation" is "aggressive bathtub frolicking," so it's really a toss-up.

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On Sunday, the Cowboys and the Jets will square off. A not-so-subtle subplot to that game is the matchup between Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and Jets head coach Rex Ryan who are, in case you weren't aware, brothers.

"Aw hell who cares," Rob said Monday, according to Clarence Hill of the Dallas Star-Telegram. "Believe me, everybody has whatever screwed up thing going on. I don't care. I'm sure you do, and everybody else that points fingers. Who cares? Everybody has a life off the field. Who gives a crap?

"I'm sure I'm worse than he is. So big deal."

Rob didn't necessarily say that Rex was in the video of course, but he certainly came close to doing so.

"Naw, I mean hell, he is a little freaky I guess," Rob Ryan said. "Hell, I don't know. I like everything about my wife. She got great feet, too. She got everything nice. What the hell."

What else can you say? Well, for starters, there's the whole "no comment" approach that Rex took. But that's not really in the fashion of the Ryan brothers, especially when the two brothers are about to face off in head-to-head competition. (Or close to it at least -- it's not like Rex is some offensive mastermind trying to outduel his brother, per se, but it's about as close as you can get right now.)

Two weeks ago, the Jetssigned defensive end Aaron Maybin to a one-year deal. The former 2009 11th overall pick had just been released by the team that overdrafted him, the Buffalo Bills, and there was speculation that his NFL career could be over after two unremarkable seasons that resulted in neither a start nor a sack.

Why the Jets would show interest in Maybin shortly after getting rid of virtually the same player in Vernon Gholston was something of a mystery, although head coach Rex Ryan has had some success with reclamation projects. While the Ravens defensive coordinator, Ryan had a knack for taking the undrafted and overlooked and molding them into quality football players. Bart Scott and Jim Leonhard are the two most obvious examples, and he thought so much of them that he brought them to New York in 2009.

Unfortunately, not even Ryan's motivational skills and enthusiasm could make Gholston into something he wasn't, and the Jets cut him. He signed with the Bears in July (and was subsequently released earlier this week), although he did have time to lament that Ryan never gave him a chance with the Jets.

And unless something changes in the coming days, Gholston's New York fate could also be Maybin's.

On August 18, Ryan had high hopes for Maybin. "He has no clue -- he doesn't know a single defense -- but it's like, 'Hey, just turn that corner' -- and he did that pretty good," Ryan said after Maybin's first practice -- an impressive showing with the third string.

We're now in September, 10 days from the regular season, and the reality has set in. Ryan said Maybin is "going to have to do more" to make the team. "He's going to have to show us he's that pass rusher he has a chance to be," he continued. "I think he can play in this league. We'll see if he can play for us."

Also not helping Maybin's cause: the play of Jamaal Westerman, the third-year linebacker who Ryan said was "rushing the passer as well as anyone we have."

When asked about the team signing Maybin last month, Westerman sounded unconcerned.

“This league is about competition and motivation,” he said, according to the Newark Star-Ledger. “I didn’t look at that as anything negative. I looked at it as they’re bringing in a guy who is working hard to learn the defense, just like I’m working hard to improve my play.”

Maybin gets one more (last?) chance to prove he deserves a roster spot when the Jets host the Eagles Thursday night at 7:30.

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If you had to pick one coach to get miked up for an entire season to produce a two-part NFL Films documentary, it would, quite obviously, be Bill Belichick, right?

Ha, exactly. Of course it wouldn't. But it is -- Belichick, in a commercial that aired during Monday night's Jets-Giants game on NFL Network, is shown like he's never been seen before, as NFL Films followed him around for the entire 2009 season, his 35th year in coaching and the Patriots 50th anniversary season.

"Bill Belichick doesn’t only make history – he studies it; he understands his place in it; and he appreciates our desire to capture it," said NFL Films President Steve Sabol. "Like Vince Lombardi’s Packers in 1967, Belichick and the Patriots gave us access to his football life and what we created is a portrait of the coach, the father, the taskmaster – and most importantly – the man."

I highly recommend that you watch the preview, which you can see over at NFL.com, because it will show you just how freaking awesome this series will end up being. What's odd about the tease is that there's nearly more emotional moments shown in the preview than there are creepy hoodie moments.

And there's probably a good chance that everyone who sees this will have a different viewpoint of Belichick following the series than they did before. In other words, pretty par for the course for the always-excellent NFL Films.

"It is beyond measure what NFL Films has done to promote football, preserve its history and entertain generations of us who love the game," Belichick said. "When the legendary coach of the NFL Films team, Steve Sabol, approached us about capturing our 50th anniversary season in 2009, it was an honor to participate."

It's still really bizarre that, of all people, Belichick agreed to do this. But then again, there's only so much air time that the NFL can give to Rex Ryan.

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"Rex made a comment to me when he first came in that he thought I wasn't liked by the guys on the team, then once he got there he saw that wasn't the case," Gholston said. "Those perceptions kind of determine the outcome, and it's sad to say."

"Whenever you have a new coach, you hope everything's fair," Gholston said. "But obviously, he was in Baltimore for a number of years and has a passion for those guys."

Look, the long-and-short of it is that Gholston's just a bust. Period. The Jets used the No. 6 overall pick in the 2008 draft on him, and in three years, playing as a defensive end who was supposed to beef up their pass rush, he never recorded a single sack.

Or an interception. Or a forced fumble. Or a ... you know what? You don't need me to write this out for you. If you're on Gholston's side of things and you actually think he might not be a bust, well, you can just as easily find out about Gholston's career from our good friend and debate-ending champion Google:

/slams mic//walks away

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